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Early warning

By Barry Fox

Your car stereo will warn you when emergency vehicles are about to come
tearing around the corner, if Clive Dunster of Oxford has his way. He suggests
using the radio data system (RDS) to enable emergency services to warn drivers
of potential hazards.

Most new car radios have an RDS decoder that enables them to pick up extra
information added to FM signals, such as the names of stations. RDS also allows
stereos to automatically switch from national radio stations or recorded music
to local traffic bulletins when they are broadcast. Dunster’s idea is to fit
emergency vehicles with low-power RDS transmitters that broadcast a warning over
a few hundred metres if there is an accident or some other hazard (GB 2 330 989).